Page 1 - Sands of Time Special Issue on Tata Motors Diamond Jubilee

VOL. XVII, ISSUE 2, 2020

MADE in inDiA TO aCQuirE by inDia

The year 2020 marks the Diamond Jubilee of Tata Motors which played no small share in the
development of Indian industry. The growth covers the period which marks the beginnings
of national Self Suffi ciency to Made in india to acquire by india. this special issue tries to
capture the concise account of this journey.

inCEpTiOn In 1932, realising the importance
of transportation long before others
did, J.R.D. Tata managed to persuade
Sir Dorabji Tata to fi nance the Tata
Airlines. With his elevation as the
Chairman of Tata Sons in 1938, it was
but natural for the Tatas to enter the
FROM THE transport industry.

The “Tatanagar Shops” - unoffi cially
COLLECTION
called the “Singhbhum Shops” - of the
East Indian Railway were purchased
by Tata Sons from the Government of
OF THE India. On that occasion J.R.D. said: “Our
object, as you know, is to undertake
the manufacture of boilers in the fi rst
instance, then of locomotives and
TATA CENTRAL ARCHIVES
eventually of engineering machinery.
This transfer may, therefore, be said to
constitute an important step forward in
the country’s march towards industrial
self-suffi ciency”.

With Tata Sons deciding to setup
this project as a new company it was
incorporated on September 1, 1945
and named as the “Tata Locomotive
and Engineering Company Limited” by
w tata locomotive and engineering Co. ltd. Share Certifi cate. a slight juxtaposition to TELCO.

in an era when india was in the process of shaking off foreign enslavement and required the
wherewithal to get on the road to economic freedom, the setting up of TELCO was a beacon of hope.

arMoureD VehiCleS:

Sequentially the fi rst product of the newly formed cars for the North African campaign, which they
company were hulls for armoured vehicles which did utilising TISCO (now Tata Steel) Steel. They
were in the process of completion. Workshop’s served the 8 army in its North African campaign in
th
greatest claim to fame was its contribution to the World War II saving many lives, as these hulls were
war eff ort of the Allied forces during the World War impenetrable by ordinary bullets. They were termed
II, when it was called upon to manufacture armoured as ‘Tatanagars’ with admiration by the soldiers.

tata Central arChives newsletter